Vega watched as Martyr absorbed the bright blue fire being shot right in his face.
Then before Xuihcoatl could finish blasting its fire, Martyr threw a volley of fire back up in its mouth.
'ROOOAAAAR'
Xuihcoatl recoiled back in complete surprise but was soon hit in its mouth with another blast of fire as it roared.
The Fire Serpent then whipped down its head, crashing into the ground. Martyr had already hopped away.
Martyr was high in the air, leaving a trail of fire behind him. He soared far into the distance, way past where Vega could see.
Xuihcoatl in a fit of rage slithered after Martyr, running over everything in its path and leaving a giant dirt trail.
Vega's heart was pounding.
It's not often she got in genuine danger like that. She liked the thrill though. It had been the reason why she came out here in the first place, and it was good that it was back.
She might even join Martyr once she's finished doing her part.
But right now she needed to get away, fast.
Vega had never really ran while carrying a person before, but it wasn't fun.
Every step really felt that much harder.
Vanagloria wasn't even that heavy for a girl, her upper body was really skinny.
On top of Vega's new stupid heavy hunting clothes, it felt like she was running way slower than she could've been going.
Despite this, Vega was still whipping through the forest at crazy speed. So much so that she was having way too many close calls with animals.
The creatures of the forest were running in all different directions without any sense of thought. All of them were panicking at the constant explosions and earthquakes echoing throughout the rainforest.
Every few seconds a part of the night sky would light it in bright orange, followed by an increasingly more intense explosion sound.
It was making Vega kind of jealous Martyr got to fight Xuihcoatl and not her. The chaos was making her want to join in.
'ROOOOAAAAR'
Air blasted Vega all over as the wyvern in front of her screamed in anger.
Greyscale was struggling to get off the ground, its torn wing laying in a pool of blood flowing into a nearby pond.
The dragon was bruised all over, cracks in its scales, cracked tree trunks scattered all around the broken predator. It's other wing was clawing at her frantically.
The sight of an unconscious Vanagloria must've been making the wyvern go crazy with bloodlust.
"WHAAAAAM'
Vega used her element to lift up a nearby boulder by growing vegetation around her and using it to drop the boulder on the dragon's head, knocking it fully unconscious.
She didn't have time for the weak.
Vega needed to get up high, there was a nearby mountain in her sights she was running too.
Every thought was clouded with her instinct to survive and this mountain was the current goal.
Bending down another tree with her element, jumped on and let herself fly.
Tightening her grip on Vanagloria, she flew up towards the top whizzing past a flock of small birds booking it away from the fire duo.
Vega landed comfortably onto ground of the mountain's peak.
She quickly laid down the lightning prodigy on the only tree and put her hand to the truck.
The poplar tree started to grow around the girl, surrounding her in a protective cage of wood. Vega made sure to leave a comfortable amount of space for her to move around.
Once she was finished, Vega pulled out a knife from her pants and carved a small hole in the tree for air.
After growing out the grass around it, she was finished.
Pulling out her bow she shot one fire arrow down, striking the ground in front of a small drake halfway down the mountain.
The dragon yelped and started running back down the mountain as fire started to create a wall the creatures couldn't cross.
It was terrible for the forest but she had to make sure there was no danger around Vanagloria.
After a few seconds of scanning the mountain, Vega put her arrow back in the quiver and went back to kneeling on the ground.
As she closed her eyes she poured her element into the mighty mountain, creating her rainforest radar.
It extended out, alerting her of every living being in its radius.
It felt like the entire forest was in complete chaos. Every living thing was awake and running right now.
As the radar's size increased, two specific beings started to light up.
Their presence of elemental power was almost burning in her brain.
Xuihcoatl was spread out in one giant line, his body easily being half a mile long.
Martyr's presence was drastically smaller, practically a spec compared to The Fire Serpent. He was much faster and was moving all over the place, but the sheer condescending power of his element was piercing its way into Vega's brain, making it hard not to follow his movement.
The fire prodigy had a lot more element than Vega had guessed initially and it was only growing by the second.
She could see the dark element starting to quickly fuel him, adding and combining with the fire.
"Focus."
She needed to concentrate on expanding her radar.
She checked around her for any more danger and then started to cut herself off from the immediate area.
Slowly she turned her radar into a wave, moving outward towards the forest capital, El dorado.
If Quetzacoatl were to be anywhere, it would be there.
The goddess was probably lazily lying in the tree of Yggdrasil, watching over, but not protecting her capital.
"This is taking too looooooong!" Vega thought after a few more minutes of searching.
She was getting very inpatient at her powers the longer she did this.
Her little radar wave had gone over the whole wildlands by now and was just now reaching the tree of Yggdrasil, but the goddess wasn't there.
Vega really couldn't sacrifice much more time.
She was completely cut off her normal five senses and had completely poured herself into her element. For all she knew, there could be a dragon sneaking up on her and Vanagloria right now.
It wouldn't be the first time she completely removed her consciousness from her body like this, but it still was super weird and unnatural.
It felt like she was one with the forest, a spiritual onlooker of every being in her bird's eye view.
The weirdest part was that it worked so well, Vega felt like shouldn't be able to do this but she was. Her thoughts still came through normally, but she really was completely unaware of everything going on around her.
"What I die in here? Do I just get stuck like this? Am I already dead? Oooooooooooh shit don't thiiiiiink about thaaaaaat."
A wave of existential terror hit her, almost scaring her out of her new consciousness.
She needed to fi…
"There you are!"
The ampithere's tail popped into her radar vision, her otherworldly elemental power immediately sticking out.
She was laying down by the front entrance of El dorado, at the gates before the mile long staircase up to the city.
"HEY! WAKE UP BITCH!!" Vega screamed at the goddess.
She was still wrapping her head around how this whole telepathy thing worked, but she knew how to communicate with the goddess which is all that mattered right now.
The giant fluffy green snake perked up at the voice in her head, her skull nearly crashing into the giant mahogany gate above her.
"Calm my child, there is no need for unnecessary slurs this early in the…"
"GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE! YOUR BROTHER IS TRYING TO KILL ME!"
Vega immediately let go of her consciousness and came back to her body.
She sprung up from kneeling and whipped out her bow, pointing it all around her for danger.
But…
Something else caught her attention.
"The air…"
The smell was too strong to ignore.
"Ash."
The mountain she was on seemed unaffected but…
The mountain no longer stood in a rainforest…
Below Vega was a valley of smoke.
There was a clear path of thick grey smoke from where their fight had taken the two through the forest.
Fire was spreading through the whole valley, extending out from the trail.
"Oh fuck."
The forest was already in the state of an irreversible forest fire.
Explosions still echoed in the sky, now they were much louder and sharp.
Vega checked on Vanagloria's tree quickly to see the girl still sleeping, and then hopped down from the mountain to investigate.
The end of the smoke trail wasn't too far from the mountain.
Vega tried to control her fall but was quickly distracted by the thick smoke shoving against her face, making it impossible to breathe or see where she was gonna land.
'WHAM'
Vega landed on hard ground way before she thought she was going to, right on her ass.
"Owww…"
She pushed of the ground in pain, her hands covered in a gross thick liquid below.
Vega got up and instinctively started wiping her pants but…
"Ew what the… oh fuck."
Her hand was covered in deep red blood.
"Oh no."
Now that she was at ground level she could see what the forest looked like behind the roof of smoke.
Blood was everywhere.
Hellish red fire littered the charred landscape.
There wasn't a single trace of green in sight.
Mangled and distorted black bodies of burned animal bystanders laid all over the ground.
Blue feathers were scattered everywhere as well, piles of the dragon's flesh still burning.
The scariest part was that Vega only sensed one presence in the distance.
Xuihcoatl was dead.
There was only one thing left that was destroying the forest.
Her dark element was screeching manically at her.
But this time it wasn't telling her to fight Martyr…
It was telling her to run.
Vega couldn't see him but she didn't need to.
She felt his eyes lay on her from miles away as the explosions stopped.
"Stop! You can beat him! You are the forest champion! He isn't even a knight yet!" Vega yelled at herself.
Fear was trying to take over her body.
Everything was telling her to run as far away as she could.
His dark element was immeasurably powerful at the moment.
He shouldn't be this strong yet.
"Stop!"
Her own dark element was bringing her down.
"You are stronger, you are the predator."
Vega pulled out her bow.
"Come on."
Martyr may be stronger than her in sheer power but she was more experienced.
"There's a reason I'm the strongest in Alfheim."
'BOOOOOOM'
Martyr's presence started flying towards her at a speed too fast for somebody like him.
The dark presence kept getting closer and closer, not slowing down in the slightest.
Vega had seconds to react before Martyr reached her.
As quickly as she could she whipped out her bow and grabbed an explosive arrow out of her quiver. She drew it back farther than she ever did before, the silky silver string digging into her fingers.
She started drawing out forest element to strengthen herself. Vega wasn't gonna get hit, but she had to make sure.
A dark red ball of fire started to show itself in the smoke, getting increasingly larger.
Her heart was starting to beat faster, it felt like her bow was shaking.
"Calm down, just concentrate."
"…"
'fyyoummm-BOOOOOOOM'
A dead on hi-
'DOOOOOOOOOOM'
It felt like Vega's rib cage was about to break into a million pieces as she was struck.
'CRAAASH'
Her back slammed against tree after tree, eventually her body engraving itself into the side of the mountain.
If it weren't for her elements strengthening her bones and body, she would have been absolutely crushed.
Vega looked on as Martyr slowly came out of the smoke.
He didn't even look human.
His eyes were completely dark red, the fire spreading all across his hair to the point it almost looked like his hair was just naturally supposed to be flames.
The fire itself didn't even look normal. It was infused with his dark element, creating a gruesome hellish red.
His shirt was completely torn up, completely showing off his bare chest.
His whole body had blood on it, but specifically his hands were more drenched than everything else. They were ignited in that same crimson fire.
In his hand he held a colossal sledgehammer, constructed completely out of his fire element. It was definitely what struck Vega a second before.
'BOOOOM'
'WHAM'
Martyr started flying towards Vega but immediately she kicked him right in his chest, her hunting boot sending him flying into a tree.
Vega unstuck herself from the side of the mountain and fell down onto the fresh ground, still holding her bow.
Martyr was also getting up from the tree, his scratched bare back showing.
A giant tattoo of some sort of sigil covered his entire back. It was very triangular and had a 'v' at the bottom of it. Every thick black line was freshly bold, like it was completely new.
Murderous intent was emminating all throughout his aura, fear striking Vega right in heart.
'FYYYOOUUUMMMM'
Vega dodged out of the way in anticipation of the wave of fire. He was moving too fast to dodge by reflex, so she was gonna have to predict everything.
"Shit, why does he have to have fire?" Vega thought, running far away from him.
'THUNK'
A makeshift fire knife struck the truck of a tree next to her head.
She could easily deal with any other element except that one. Condensing her bones with a forest element was gonna be pointless if he hit her with any sort of fire.
Vega started running away from him, looking out for anything that might be getting launched at her.
She needed to use her own dark element against him if she was gonna win.
Pulling back another arrow, she shot it back at where she sensed his presence. This time she shot out a water arrow.
An explosion of water shot out from the tree the arrow it stuck on, nearly hitting Martyr but stopping him for a moment.
This was her chance.
Vega ran behind a boulder and pulled out an plain arrow from her quiver.
She sliced her cheek with the tip of the arrow, adrenaline rushing through her body in the sharp pain.
"There we go."
'swipe'
She scratched her other cheek, blood spilling down her face from the all natural war paint.
Her vision started getting sharper and more clear.
It felt like she could finally concentrate.
Dark element swarmed her senses, taking control.
It pumped through her veins in the rush of adrenaline.
Her heart was beating faster and faster.
It might be a bad idea to let herself lose control like this…
But it was too late to stop now.
Plus, this was her only key to winning.
She jumped out from behind the tree, her bow fully drawn with a plain arrow.
Martyr was standing with extreme caution, staring right at her. He was in a stance that was gonna let him jump at any second.
Black smoke started coiling around her bow as she held it with perfect precision.
"I'm not scared of you… COME ON MARTYR!"
Martyr continued to stare at her, glancing down at the bow every few seconds.
'BOOOOOM'
'fyyyyoo-clink'
The arrow flew right into the plate of his sledgehammer as he flew towards her again with no real strategy.
Vega dodged easily and whacked the back of his head with her bow before he could even hit the ground.
She then sent out a plume of black smoke towards him, condensing and pinning him back down on the ground.
Unlike him, she practiced with her dark element. She knew how to use it.
She put her bow away on back and used that same hand to start forming a weapon of her own.
'BOOOOOOM'
Before she was able to finish, Martyr snapped his fingers under the smoke and blew up the ground behind her, shooting her forward.
Vega fell onto the ground, her mantle scratching against the bloody surface.
She watched as he picked up her half made weapon and crushed it with his hand, absorbing its dark element.
Vega shot up and got into a fighting position.
Martyr jumped at her, getting stopped by branches that coiled around his arms and legs. Roots were shooting out of the ground to stop him.
He completely halted in the air, right in front of Vega.
She planted her hand on his fiery forehead and started absorbing the dark element.
Vega then rushed a whole wave of the dark element down her arm, and in one shove it exploded in his face.
Martyr flew back, still gripping his giant sledgehammer which he used to slow himself down.
Vega whipped out her bow and shot another explosive arrow at him, sticking in his shoulder.
'BOOOOOOOOM'
He was consumed in a cloud of orange fire.
As the fire dissolved it revealed him kneeling on the ground, gripping his shoulder.
He was definitely hesitating to attack, she could sense he knew not to mess with her.
She felt invincible right now.
Vega threw out a wave of dark energy, starting to surround Martyr in a fortress of shadows.
He desperately tried to push back with a blast of his fire, barely slowing her down.
Vega was on an absolute adrenaline high and she had no plans on stopping.
She was gonna crush him.
"STOP."
The whole forest around Vega started to come back to life.
Green sprouting back up from the ground, carcasses seeped back into the dirt.
Vega looked up to see Quetzcoatl flying above them, staring right at her.
"Should have gotten here earlier. It's a little too late to save your forest." Vega spat back, despite the forest being regrown right before her eyes.
No way in hell was she stopping now.
"This is immature behavior for a champion." The godly voice said in her head.
"Then come and st-"
'DOOOOOOOOM'
The goddess landed right behind Martyr, the ground cracked and the whole rainforest shook underneath her weight.
Before Vega could say anything, the amphiptere leaned its head down and started taking a massive inhale.
Vega felt her element escape her body, shooting up into the dragon's jaw.
Her vision got cloudy and her concentration left her body.
Before she knew it, Vega had fallen onto her back.
Her consciousness was escaping her and she could do nothing about it.
She was completely helpless to the goddess of the forest.